Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Review: Britt Bury - The Darkest Day

Izel Campbell was raised to believe she is an immortal Fionn with the magical skills of persuasion. But when she travels to Scotland to visit her ancestral home, Izel discovers that she is actually the world's last living human. Forced to run for her life, Izel crosses paths with Kelvin Kerr, the Campbells' greatest foe-and the most magnificent warrior she has ever seen.

BURNS BRIGHTEST . . .

A thousand-year-old battle chief of the Kerr clan, Kelvin lives only to avenge his father, who died at the hands of the bloody Campbells. Honor demands he kill the Campbell heir, but when he learns that the lovely Izel is both Campbell "and" human, Kelvin is torn between duty and desire . . .

Review:
This new series by newcomer Britt Bury has all the makings of a success. Sexy immortal warriors with all the Alpha qualities we know and love as well sassy powerful woman who don’t let these forceful warriors run all over them. The dialog is fun, funny and realistic, the passion is smoldering, and the emotions run deep. The Darkest Day is a fantastic debut novel!

For the last 1000 years Kelvin’s sole reason for living has been for revenge. He has vowed to eliminate the entire direct line of Campbells. He is surprised when the heir to the Campbell clan turns out to be a female, when all past Campbell chieftains have been male. But he is determined to see this through; even has his sword is at Izels throat she changes before his very eyes, taking on her true form and scent. It is then that he realizes that she is actually a human, and his fated mate. Kelvin’s brother demands that he bring the last living human to their castle for “questioning”. From here Kelvin becomes a storm of emotion, he is trying to do his duty and fight his overwhelming attraction to Izel. Every instinct he has is to cherish and protect his mate, but fate does not seem to be so kind to him, he knows he can’t keep her. He must do his duty and give Izel over to his brother. Kelvin runs hot and cold around Izel as he is trying to fight his every instinct, it becomes very entertaining watching him try to ignore Izel, but just can’t. Even more entertaining than that is watching him grovel for forgiveness. Izel doesn’t make it easy for him. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him squirm and rage. At the end Kel literally had me so close to tears, I was watering up and everything. It takes a lot to bring me close to tears, so when it does happen it’s all that more significant. I quite liked Kel, at the heart of it; he is a loyal, honorable and fierce male that any female should be proud to have at her side.

Izel, transforms before your very eyes in both body and spirit through this book. When you meet her, she is emotionless. Her grandfather cast a spell on her to hide her true nature from everyone and to suppress all emotion, as the last human she would have been hunted to the death. Once she gets to the run down shack that her grandfather sent her to, the spell runs its course and she is flooded with every emotion she never had. I think that Izel handles the bombardment of emotion very well. At times she didn’t know what to do with these new feeling but she learns pretty quickly. What I loved about Izel is she did not let Kel run her; she fought back with everything she never knew she had. He tells her to stay where she is, so she tricks him and goes to the bar. I was mentally cheering her on for that one! She doesn’t let Kel deny his attraction as soon as she realizes he’s a big fat faker. When they were being chased down, she fought trying to protect herself and Kel. She brought Kel to his knees, groveling when he was trying to win her back, she did not make it easy. She didn’t forgive him right away like in so many other books, she made him work for it. Again, I was cheering her on for that a mental “You Go Girl” went on in my head. I quite enjoyed Izel as a character, she definitely kept things entertaining.

There was one thing that brought out a Hmm.. in me and that is the obvious parallels to Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series, which is my favorite series. There is the Court of Contention which occurs every 400 years, which is basically an all out battle between immortals. Kresley Cole has the Ascenstion which occurs every 500 years which is a series of battles over a period of time between immortal factions. Then there is the “attempting”, which the Razorback Pookah’s must do to know if a female is their true mate. This is the same with Kresley Coles Rage Demons, they must “attempt” a female to know if they are their true mate. Some of the details are different with “attempting” but the basic concept is the same. These two things were a little too close for comfort but did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.

I really enjoyed reading this title, it pulled me in and kept me entertained up until the very end. I laughed; I almost cried and was up hella late in the grips of this novel. It was an excellent start to this series and I am eager to see how this series develops.

This book was provided to me from NetGally for an honest review. No other compensation was provided.

1 comment:

I love Kresley Cole so, now I'm curious. Really curious. This is always a fine line for me--how many things can an author borrow, how derivative can there work be, before I'm forced to hate it? Hmm indeed. Great review!

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